There was a fellow in Az years ago who converted a '65 Kombi to electric - though his range, on lead acid batteries, was only about 60 miles.   He kept the stock 4-spd transmission and fashioned an adapter plate to attach a large industrial motor to it.

Somewhere I have a copy of the plans for the plate as I was entertaining doing the same to a '74 Thing.

On 24-Aug-2014, at 11:50, Dave Mcneely wrote:

> Heat would have to be resistance, AC would have to be driven by separate electric motor (latter would be like most hybrids and EVs on the road now, factory built).  Interesting that it indicates a manual transmission.  Not common in electrically driven vehicles.  mcneely
> 
> ---- Dennis Haynes <d23haynes57@HOTMAIL.COM> wrote: 
>> Add doesn�t say if it has heat or air conditioning. 
>> 
>> Dennis
>> 
>> 
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: Vanagon Mailing List [mailto:vanagon@gerry.vanagon.com] On Behalf Of Jim Felder
>> Sent: Sunday, August 24, 2014 8:25 AM
>> To: vanagon@GERRY.VANAGON.COM
>> Subject: They said it couldn't be done....
>> 
>> And maybe it couldn't, but here is an all-electric VW bus that the owner claims will run on the highway, 200 mile range, etc.:
>> 
>> http://bham.craigslist.org/cto/4627305079.html
>> 
>> Jim
> 
> --
> David McNeely